GUWAHATI: Meghalaya police, in coordination with Mumbai police, busted a criminal network that not only facilitated the illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals but also used their bank accounts, opened with forged documents, to carry out banking and cyber frauds.
Officials said Meghalaya police had launched an operation on February 14 after receiving details that a group of suspected Bangladeshi nationals was travelling to Shillong from Guwahati by road. Five persons, including a child, were intercepted in Ri-Bhoi district and taken into custody.
They were found possessing Aadhaar and PAN cards, but it did not take long for the police to ascertain their Bangladeshi nationality. All of them had entered India months ago and travelled to Mumbai looking for jobs.
The infiltrators admitted that Shaikh Mohd Mujib of Mumbai had arranged Aadhaar and PAN cards for them. He is allegedly part of the network that arranged forged documents using fake address proofs and moved illegal immigrants to Indian cities through middlemen.
A Kazi and Jabir Yunus Shaikh, two other Mumbai-based members of the network, opened bank accounts in the names of the immigrants by using forged documents. The accounts were then used for loan fraud and cybercrime.
Sometime ago, a Meghalaya police team visited Mumbai and together with Mumbai police carried out a series of raids leading to the arrest of Kazi, Shaikh and Mujib from three different places in the city. Various incriminating documents were seized.
Meghalaya shares a 443 km long border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, and the locals are not viewing the illegal migration of Bangladeshi citizens as an isolated incident.
Illegal immigration from Bangladesh has been a growing concern in the state, with various groups and organisations flagging the issue from time to time. They have been demanding to step up vigil along the border after claiming that Bangladeshi nationals were entering India through the Meghalaya border.